


The Cat Came Back

by The_Peridot_Shade



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Ambiguous/Open Ending, For Want of a Nail, Gen, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-22 23:08:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19138702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Peridot_Shade/pseuds/The_Peridot_Shade
Summary: Or, in which history is changed by virtue of a cat—who was not always a cat—adopting the Potter family in 1981.





	The Cat Came Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flamethrower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamethrower/gifts).



> Slightly inspired by a throwaway comment in Flamethrower's Of A Linear Circle about the Potters having a cat. My insomniac brain latched onto it, and this is the result.

They chose their people on a rare sunny day in June of 1981—not that they were precisely aware of that date.Time, they had discovered since their rebirth, meant little to a cat.Neither, for that matter, did little details like Fidelius Charms.

They wandered into the house in Godric's Hollow and refused to leave, no matter how many detection charms Lily Potter cast on them.They were a cat, now, and they'd made their choice.

The little family warmed to them quickly enough—they were gentle with the little boy, and very good at soothing the worries of two adults in hiding with a child to protect.

That was, incidentally, no little part of why they were there.

The months passed.They did not perceive it as such, in truth.Everything, to them, was happening at once.It had been quite the adjustment period initially, but it was their nature now, to see what humans did not.The Potters were continually baffled by their miraculous, meticulous avoidance of certain areas of sitting room and nursery floor.

It was the spirits that clued them in to the passage of time.The veil thinned as Samhain approached, and a cat always knows.

The night of the thirty-first of October, they sat crouched in front of the door, tail lashing wildly.They knew what came next, and they were ready.

No one would harm _their_ people.

The wards fell with a rush of magic that flowed over their spine, all their fur raising on end.

Behind them, James Potter scrambled for his wand, calling to his wife to run.He took up position at their back, grimly determined.

They ignored him.His role was irrelevant to their plans.

The door burst open, and the scent of death rushed in.

They pounced.

Voldemort screeched, swinging his leg desperately to dislodge the cat's grip of claws and teeth upon his ankle.He tried to aim his wand at them, but could not manage it with their close proximity to his person.

James Potter fired off a Stunning Charm.

Voldemort dropped.Behind him, sharp movement and the smell of rat betrayed Pettigrew's flight.

They released their foe's leg, moving to sit atop the Dark Lord's chest.

James rushed upstairs.

They were still sitting there when the family came back down the stairs.A doe Patronus passed them, bounding off into the night.

James came up behind them, lifting them up to his chest as Lily cast Incarcerous upon the unconscious would-be despot.

"Good kitty," James whispered, a touch of disbelieving awe in his voice.

They purred.Their people were safe.

(Later, Aurors would come to take the bound Dark Lord into custody.Later, Albus Dumbledore would arrive, surprise and strangely disappointed relief on his face.They would hiss at him.Knowledge of what could have been is such a strange thing.Not everything was solved, and perhaps one day Voldemort would be a threat once more, but for now all was well.)

The next night, settled into a new home, they would curl up beside their baby, who could have been a Chosen One, could have been a hero and a tragedy all wrapped up in one ill-prepared and vulnerable package—and they would purr, satisfied, as they fall asleep.It had been a good day—a day that changed history.


End file.
